(The Center Square) – A new executive order from President Donald Trump is attempting to end displays and programs at Smithsonian museums that “divide Americans based on race” and “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”
“Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth,” the order reads. “Under this historical revision, our Nation’s unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed.”
The order appoints Vice President J.D. Vance to lead efforts to replace existing exhibits or programs that teach America as a uniquely systemically oppressive nation. It directs Vance and the Office of Management and Budget to work with Congress to halt appropriations to such exhibits and redirect it to those that inspire, promote American greatness and its shared values and foster unity.
The order highlights examples of existing exhibits that “portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive,” describing the “Shape of Power” exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum; depictions of “White culture” at the National Museum of African American History and Culture; and plans to celebrate “male athletes… in women’s sports” at the forthcoming American Women’s History Museum.
Appropriations for the women’s history museum are to go toward recognizing the achievements of biological women and not toward “[recognizing] men as women in any respect” there, according to the order. Vance is to work with the leaders in the House and Senate to appoint citizen members to the Smithsonian Board of Regents “committed to advancing the policy of this order.”
